Brian Regan

Mary
Kole’s new book on craft, Writing
Irresistible Kidlit, (Writer’s Digest Books, Dec. 2012), isn’t the kind of
book you just read; it’s that kind of book that fires up your brain, makes you
stop every few pages to grab a pen and paper, and dash out a line or two. I
recognized many of Kole’s points, but the insight was this: Much of what an author
does is instinctual; what Kole has done is pull the tools out of the box and
assign names to them. How much more useful a tool is when you’re aware it
exists!

Culling
from specific, contemporary works, Kole explains writing practices and goals.
In illuminating “high concept,” she says, “[Readers] want stories that . . .
lift them out of the everyday.” Then she asks, “What’s something they can’t
experience in reality?” (p. 31) She then cites and deconstructs loglines for Holes, Thirteen Reasons Why, The Hunger
Games, and more. It’s this analysis throughout the book that inspires you to put your own work through the
same machinations and see if it’s strong enough to hold up. Tips are specific:
“Make your middle grade characters firmly thirteen and under” (p. 8), and her
discussion on the six things readers should know within the first chapter (p.
78).

Shaded
boxes throughout the text contain exercises addressing character specifics,
theme specifics, voice specifics, etc. Here, Kole takes the abstract and makes it
concrete. You’ll want to print these exercises out and put them together for
reference, a boiled-down toolbox for all your work.

In Writing Irresistible Kidlit, Kole
delivers a user-friendly, specific text on the craft of writing. I found it so
useful that it sits on my desk—open—as I work on my next manuscript.

I read Writing Irresistible Kidlit as an advance copy, and Kole uses as one of
her published samples my first novel, Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by
Lightning.

2
comments:

I am on chapter 5 and am finding Mary Kole's advice succinct for someone like myself who's been plugging away trying to construct a manuscript that will not only get published but will also will keep young readers turning the page and begging for the next book!

A Whole Lot of Lucky

me & jack

The Summer of Moonlight Secrets

Violet

Scholastic Book Trailer for Violet Raines

Thoughts on Writing

"If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster." --Isaac Asimov

"It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up, because by that time I was too famous." --Robert Benchley

"When writers meet, they are truculent, indifferent, or over-polite. Then comes the inevitable moment. A shows B that he has read something of B's. Will B show A? If not, then A hates B; if yes, then all is well." --Cyril Connolly"Yes, it's hard to write, but it's harder not to." --Carl Van Doren

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." --Gene Fowler"I always write a good first line, but I have trouble writing the others." --MoliFre

"What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window." --Burton Rascoe

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." --Gloria Steinem

"I love being a writer; what I can't stand is the paperwork." --Peter De Vries

"This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back in again." --Oscar Wilde"I will tell you a story." --Jesus (Matthew 21:28, CEV)